Enter your first name and a valid email address for free instant access to the natural bodybuilding report.

First Name:

Email Address:

Muscle & Fitness Magazine Review

Article care of bradford4fitness.com

Periodical Review

Muscle & Fitness by Joe Weider Publications (Rated 9.5 out of 10)

Muscle & Fitness is one of many periodicals by Joe Weider. It covers
fitness information and research updates that cover information for everyone
from everyday people trying to get in shape through your recreational health
nuts and athletes to competitive bodybuilders.

I have been regularly reading this magazine since 1987 and have watched it
go through its evolutions since. However, even before I picked up my first
issue of this magazine (when I was 13 years old) it had already gone through
various transformations. It is the decendant of YOUR PHYSIQUE which is the
precursor to his many publications which include Muscle & Fitness Hers,
Flex and Shape (to name a few) and was later renamed MUSCLE POWER, which
eventually evolved into what is now known to us as MUSCLE & FITNESS. Joe
Weider has been publishing magazines for many years and he and his brother Ben
can be credited with taking the trends of 'physical culture' (a
lifestyle/sport that eventually evolved and split into powerlifting and
bodybuilding to overgeneralize things a bit) and putting bodybuilding as we
know it on the map.

While there are many debates over the sport, particularly as it is now in
the International Federation of Bodybuilders (IFBB) with the amount of drugs
(particularly anabolic steroids), what cannot be denied is that without Joe
and Ben Weider, we may not have had bodybuilding at all. (Meanwhile my opinion
remains unchanged, that the IFBB could and should enforce their own drug rules
with more thorough testing and the immediate, uncompromising dismissal of all
bodybuilders who test positive for drug use within at least a five year period
preceding any given show. A start would be 100% drug testing with both
polygraph and urinalysis. While there would always be someone who slipped
through the cracks, this alone would go a long way in cleaning up the sport
and making it much more attractive to regular folks, increasing the fan base,
protecting the athletes, and increasing revenue. Further, this could probably
be done at a fraction of the prize money awarded to first place in the Mr.
Olympia competition.)

However, Muscle & Fitness takes an anti-drug stance and has done so for
many years. It recommends hard work, discipline, sound nutrition (including
supplementation-with which I personally agree) as the best and only viable
means to live a healthy, fit lifestyle and increase sports performance as well
as to develop an attractive physique.

Each month Muscle & Fitness has come out with a great publication that
is as useful to competitive bodybuilders as it is to recreational
weightlifters and health enthusiasts. It's publication is full of motivational
true stories about regular people who have accomplished great feats in the
fitness arena despite ovewhelming odds, that would inspire the most cynical of
readers. It provides the latest in research on nutrition and supplementation
and despite the fact that Weider produces his own line of supplements the
magazine he produces takes no sides in the debate (other than generally taking
the side that supplementation is necessary for those seeking to reach their
full potential in health and fitness-with which I again concur) while siting
legitimate and unbiased references in the research such as medical studies and
college research. Further, the publishers are the publishers not afraid to
state when an item requires more research before its effectiveness can be
proven one way or the other, but they also point out when a supplement is
bogus. It also provides training articles for everyone from beginner levels to
advanced, and often publishes an ongoing training program that allows
beginners to know when and how to cycle their training periodization. For
intermediate and advanced trainers it provides information on techniques and
work out cylces to get the most out of their training as they advance. And for
those who, like me enjoy following the sport of bodybuilding, it also has
interiews with top competitors in the sport as well as articles on the latest
competitions.

Another note that may be important to some is that it is a clean magazine.
Aside from taking an anti-drug stance (despite showing some bodybuilders who
use steroids to attain their physiques), it has a wholesome quality to it in
another area, the presentation of physiques. The bottom line here is that in a
magazine that covers physique development, it is important to display
physiques that demonstrate the aesthetic benefits of the bodybuilding and
fitness lifestyle. While many magazines are using fitness models in scenes
that verge on pornography, Muscle & Fitness presents those physiques,
usually by use of competitive athletes (particulary female fitness competitors
and bodybuilders), in a way that didn't make me ashamed to ask my mother to
buy me the magazine off the rack when I was only thirteen years old. So for
those of you who might be offended by the displays of too much skin, as long
as you can handle folks in the suits that would be likely to be worn on the
bodybuilding or fitness stage this magazine should be acceptable to you.

As a lifelong fitness buff, double certified personal trainer (ISSA and
IFA) and as a current natural bodybuilding competitor, I stand by this
magazine. It has been a great asset in the development of my knowledge in
fitness and nutriton, particulary when I was first starting out. And while I
haven't always agreed with everything stated in the magazine, on the whole I
have agreed with most of it. My rating of this on a 1 to 10 scale is a 9.5.
(10, you will find is almost impossible with me.) Further it is the
publication I would most highly recommend to clients and others looking to
find a magazine that will provide them with sound information as well as
inspiration in their quest for fitness.